Computex 2015 - Day 1

Computex 2015 - Synology

We stopped by the Synology booth as well for some more NAS action, and were shown a few more upcoming NAS units: the DiskStation DS215+ and DiskStation DS216se, the NVR716, which unlike most Synology NAS units had a HDMI output and so can easily be used without a PC, and the DiskStation DS715 which has a powerful ARM CPU with low power consumption. These are all said to be launching “soon” (e.g. Q3 2015) but with no fixed release date.


The highlight of the booth, however, was the Synology Router RT1900ac, which supports 2.4GHz an 5GHz signals and is capable of speeds up to 1900Mbps. It also includes both a USB 3.0 port and an SD card reader so you photographers, for example, can easily and quickly transfer files from one to the other. Easily the best part, however, is the software. Synology makes what is probably the best NAS software on the planet in the form of DSM, and it has taken this knowledge and style and applied it to the router. Router menus and sub-menus are usually horrible to navigate, but the broswer-based software here is a joy to use and super intuitive with its icons and windows giving it the instantly familiar feel of a desktop OS. Parental controls, bandwidth limitations, guaranteed bandwidth and more were all dead simple to set up. It certainly looks like one to watch if you want precise but simple control of your home or office network. Release dates and prices are sketchy at the moment; the best estimate puts it as coming out later this year for between 150 and 200 US dollars.